DVD review: 'The Love We Make'

Paul McCartney was in New York the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, sitting on a plane that was taxiing out for takeoff on a flight to Britain, where the singer planned to celebrate two of his

At first everyone thought it was a tragic aircraft mishap until they heard the second tower had just been hit by another plane.

“Like everybody else, it was, ‘Oh no, wow. This is some act of sabotage.’ And then we heard about the Pentagon,” McCartney recalls in the opening interview of the documentary “The Love We Make.”

“I just started thinking, you know, what can I do? Because there’s going to be a spirit shift in New York, in America,” he says. “This is suddenly a place where people are gonna feel vulnerable for the first time in a long time.”

Born the son of a volunteer Liverpool firefighter during the World War II Blitz, McCartney decided to organize a small concert for the firefighters of New York, but he was persuaded instead to headline a much larger event, the “Concert for New York City,” which VH1 was planning at Madison Square Garden.

This fascinating and sometimes moving film documents the rehearsals, promotional interviews and McCartney’s solo wanderings through the streets of post-9/11 New York in the weeks leading up to the Oct. 20, 2001, all-star concert. This not a concert film, although there are brief clips of musical performances by McCartney and others throughout. This is more of an intimate portrait of a famous man, three years a widower at the time, moving through a wounded city, determined not to allow his fame to cut him off from real life. He politely accepts greetings and engages in conversations with all kinds of fans — from housewives and street musicians to more than a couple of crazies, friendly and willing to sign his name for the genuine autograph seeker but not the eBay hustlers, whom he instinctively recognizes. He’s also alert for cars following his limo a little too closely. “Let’s get some distance, George,” he tells his driver at one point.